City seeks advice on fiscal situation

GLOVERSVILLE – The Common Council is seeking advice from the state Financial Restructuring Board on how to improve the city’s financial situation.

“We are at 97 percent of our constitutional [taxing] limit … in the road ahead, we aren’t expecting any new revenue,” Mayor Dayton King said. “With the pension cost and health-care cost continuing to go up, we really expect to use that general fund going forward. We need this state board to really see the issues we have.”

According to the state website, the Financial Restructuring Board for Local Governments is a 10-member panel available year-round to offer help to eligible municipalities. The board is chaired by the budget director and includes the state comptroller, the attorney general, the secretary of state and six other members appointed by the governor.

If the board decides to undertake a comprehensive review of a municipality, it can request any information necessary to understand the municipality’s finances and operations, the website states. Based on this information, the board would make recommendations for improving fiscal stability, management and the delivery of public services.

In addition, the site says, the board could offer grants or loans of up to $5 million through the Local Government Performance and Efficiency Program for undertaking certain recommendations.

According to the city council resolution seeking the help, the city has an average full-value property tax rate of $21.31 per $1,000 of assessed property value, which is greater than the full-value property tax rate of 75 percent of counties, cities and towns with fiscal years ending in the same calendar year as the city.

The council had to pass the resolution in order to seek assistance from the state board.